Swarming Sovereignty

So…I didn’t really see one location that’s better than the rest, how about you?

“No, me neither.” Rose replied. “For now, how about we just like…carve out a few holes in the ground, coat them in modeling wax, and then keep them there? You said this is a university, right? There are probably books on this sort of thing if we look hard enough.”

Actually…there’s probably at least the skeleton of a farm somewhere on campus. Lia mused. Near the science buildings, perhaps?

“Really? Why? It seems kind of a weird thing for a place of learning to have.”

Things have changed a bit since you were alive. Lia explained. Correct me if I am wrong, but most scientific advancements were made in people’s homes, not in laboratories, right?

“Laboratories?”

Ah. Um…how do I put this…well, thanks in no small part to your wishes, we made a lot of progress in science these past five hundred years. A laboratory is like…a dedicated space for scientists and magicians to practice their craft, and to store any dedicated instruments or other materials.

“I think I’m following so far. What does this have to do with rat farms?”

Well, rats happen to be excellent for use in testing. They breed incredibly quickly, they don’t have souls, and they’re mobile and as mammals they’re at least…partially related to most humanoids.

“Mammal?”

Oh, right. We’ll…well, honestly it might be best if we get you a bunch of textbooks later. They’re going to be pretty dry, but…they should be able to fill in the gaps of your knowledge. For now, just know that any humanoid that gives live birth is usually a mammal, and that mammals are all related in a sort of…distant way.

“I’m not sure I understand, but I’ll trust you on that. And please, do give me any textbooks you find, I’m quite curious to see what new knowledge has been gained since I was last…alive.”

Right. So, the point is, rats react to a lot of chemicals and medicines the same way people do. We use them to test how people might react to certain things, so it’s handy to have a stock of them on hand at all times. So, if we can find that infrastructure, we can both use that as reference and as a start for our own farm.

“Shall we make that our first target, then?”

I think we should. My guess is the farm will be somewhere near the science buildings, I can point those out to you later. We can occupy those, and then work our way towards having some accommodations that are more…livable.

“Got it. Shall I begin preparation to invade?”

Lia shook her head. No. You go familiarize yourself with your new form and abilities. I’m going to go oversee construction of a few pits to put some rats in for now, and we can worry about invading once our army gets back. I’ll be near the middle of camp if you need me, and please come get me once you think you’ve got a hang of everything, I’m excited to see how it works!

Lia jumped off of Rose’s shoulder, and sped off towards the a spot just outside the center of the camp. From there, she gathered some burrowers and drones and set them to excavating a series of pits, which were then coated in modeling wax to discourage burrowing. She decided to only make four for the time being, one for males, one for pregnant females, one for non-pregnant females and children, and one for breeding.

In the future, she’d want more, a lot more, but right now she wanted something that would be relatively easy to move into a more proper setup. These would, hopefully, only be in use for a day or two, so it wasn’t like she was going to need that much room anyway.

A note dropped to the ground in front of her. Hey, looks like you’re ready for some rats. It read. I’m going to drop…let’s say eight females and two males into those pits. I’ll put them in their proper places, of course, don’t worry about that. Just nod if you’re ready.

-Amelia

P.S. I started setting up a farm of my own, and yes, there is a farm on campus. It’s deep in the biology building and is probably a little small for your purposes, but you can expand it pretty easily. Good luck!

Lia gave a nod, and squeaking filled the air as rats unceremoniously appeared in the pits she had made. Now she just needed to figure out how she was going to transport the things between pits, and everything would be operational.

After a moment’s thought, she decided that was what her drones were for. Hopefully some time in the future she would be able to make some sort of “rancher”, but until that time came the drones would just have to do things this way.

She called a few drones over, and had them take one male and four females and put them together in the breeding pit. Now…she just had to wait for them to do their work. She could probably use some sort of mental magic to get them going faster, but that…would probably have side effects that she wasn’t ready to deal with, and might not even work properly, so she decided it was best to just let nature take its course.

She had some time still, so she made her way to the direct center of the camp, where she had had the food dispenser placed. Once there, she called over another drone and had the dispenser make some feed for the rats. It wasn’t anything fancy, just some scraps of bread, but she figured that was…probably enough for now. She didn’t know what exactly rats ate, but she was pretty sure they ate like…everything, so she doubted a day or two of bread would kill them.

She had the drone take the feed to the rats, then began to order a variety of preserved goods. She didn’t want the food itself, but she needed to get jars made and cleaned out, so, until something more interesting happened, she resolved herself to doing just that.

---

“Lia, I believe I have a good enough grasp of my abilities to show them off.” Rose said, crouching down so she was closer to Lia.

Got it. Lia replied. Give me a second to get on this stall counter so I have a better view.

“Allow me.” Rose said, gently picking Lia up and placing her on the counter. “What would you like to know about first?”

Let’s save the magic for last, I want to know about other stuff you can do with your body, like the photosynthesis or leaf thing.

“Of course.” Rose said. “First off, have you looked at my status yet?”

I have not. May I?

“You really don’t need to ask.” Rose giggled. “Take this as complete consent to peeking whenever you want in the future.”

Alright, alright. Lia replied. Give me a second, then. She pulled up Rose’s status, and began to read it through.

That’s…better than what I had at the start of this evolution. That’s quite the jump from what you had before.

“Really? Surely you have better magic stats than I do.”

No, they all started at twenty as well, but my physical stats were ten, and I only had thirty HP and Stamina and forty Mana. Though…now that I’m looking at your level, you need to gain ten more levels to evolve than I do, so…I guess you’re a higher…stage of evolution or whatever. You seem to have jumped quite a few rungs in the evolution ladder.

“That’s…well, I’ll be honest, I’m a little uncomfortable with being that higher stage, but if it helps me protect you, then…I’m not complaining.”

Don’t worry about it too much. I mean…it’s still only barely better than the stats most people start with, so it’s not like you’re gonna suddenly be leagues stronger than everything. It’ll be fine.

“…Right.” Rose replied, clearly not entirely convinced. “Shall we…begin the showcase proper, then?”

Yes, let’s do that.

“So,” Rose began, “One of the first things I was curious about was my blood. And, after some testing, I found out it’s a sort of…syrupy red sap. Want to try some?”

You…did you purposefully cut yourself just to see what your blood was like?

“Yeah?” Rose replied, tilting her head in confusion. “Is that weird?”

Yes, that’s weird! Lia said, exasperated. You don’t normally just…hurt yourself for something like that!

“But it’s vital information!” Rose protested. “What if it was poison?! I wouldn’t want to find that out the hard way, you could get hurt!”

How would you even tell if it was poison? Lia countered.

“I know a few things about poison, thank you very much! Between that, my magic, and Analysis, I am beyond confident that it’s not poisonous or venomous or anything like that. So, do you want some syrup or not? I promise, it’s delicious.”

Let’s…hold off on that. Lia said. Syrup or not, it’s weird knowing that it’s your blood. Let’s just…move on. And please don’t hurt yourself for stuff like this in the future.

“I promise I’ll only do it if it’s important.” Rose said.

Rose, that’s not what I meant.

“Fine.” Rose grumbled. “I won’t do it without your permission.”

Good enough. Lia sighed. Anyway, what else do you have to show me?

“Right, so, one interesting thing I’m able to do is…” She paused, face screwing up in concentration, and then a mess of thorns shot out of her skin, oozing a dark green liquid. A moment later the thorns retracted, leaving Rose completely unharmed.

“That stuff on the thorns is venomous, so be careful.” She said. “That’s the extreme end of what that can do, but I can also…” She concentrated for another moment, and a singular thorn popped out of her outstretched palm. She swung at it with her other hand and broke it, then caught the piece of thorn before it hit the ground.

She made a few thrusts with it, as if it were a dagger, then dropped it. “Costs some Stamina to make the thorns, but I can recuperate most of it if the thorns are still…attached. And before you say anything, breaking the thorns doesn’t hurt, I can’t feel them beyond the way they like…tug on my skin if you pull them. I don’t lose any HP if they’re damaged unless the attack actually goes through to my skin, the only real consequence for breaking them is not being able to get that bit of Stamina back.”

And thorns that are broken off of you just…stay there? They don’t go away?

“They probably do at some point, but not that I’ve seen. My guess is they last a few hours. Still, I think it could have some really interesting applications for conversions. Plus, they definitely make for better weapon than clubs, so until we can get more real weapons going around, we can use those for big engagements.”

Lia nodded. As long as it doesn’t actually hurt you, I suppose that’s acceptable.

“It’s like pulling off a scraped off bit of skin, not a big deal in the slightest.” Rose confirmed. “They’re actually what I use to apply modeling wax now, which is a bit of a relief. I wasn’t looking forward to having to stoop down and like…throw up on everything or whatever.

“Let’s see…other than that, my body doesn’t have anything flashy going on. I took a jog out of the market area to check out photosynthesis and…well, it’s nice. I…can’t really describe it properly, but I just feel…energized under the sun. I’m pretty sure my Mana and Stamina regenerated faster, too, but I don’t regen fast enough to truly confirm that yet.

“And, as you’ve seen, I can manipulate the leaves I make. The most I can do with them is imitate clothing, I don’t have any way of making it practical in combat…yet. I’m guessing I’m going to get a Skill or two that will help with that if I keep messing with it. For now, the most I can do is make them into really baggy clothing, which isn’t exactly helpful. But…well, that’s everything for my body, so…anything else you want to know before I talk about my magic?”

Lia shook her head. No, that’s everything, really. Let’s hear about the magic.

Rose smiled widely. “Awesome. So, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, being a monster makes casting magic a lot easier. Provided it’s of a type that your race or Skills give you, you just…don’t need to chant, ever. I can actually still use other types of magic if I use a chant, but…well, I only remember a couple of really simple spells that I probably used to use a lot, like one that just starts a fire, nothing too useful.

“But this new type of magic…well, I like it. I like it a lot.” Rose said happily. “It’s…well, it’s not exactly coherent, and I don’t think I’ve even scratched the surface of what I can do with it, I imagine I’ll need to evolve or need more Skills for that, but what I have now is nice.”

She swept an arm out, and a halberd materialized in it, looking like it was made from the same sort of thing her thorns were made of. The smooth green weapon looked elegant but deadly, decorated along its length with roses of varying colors, both carvings on the weapon and actual flowers affixed to it.

As she swung, the halberd shifted into a sword, then formed itself into a shield, a spear appearing on Rose’s other hand. Both of those vanished, and a longbow appeared in Rose’s hand, an arrow seemingly made of thorns appearing as she drew the string back. She let go and the arrow flew, splitting the wood of a stall next to Lia as it sailed straight through, falling to rest just barely beyond.

“As you can see, I can summon…well, basically any weapon I can think of.” Rose explained. “It costs a tiny bit of Mana to keep one out, and a bit more whenever I summon or change one, but I’m imagining once I have a few more levels under my belt it’ll be basically free.

“Um, other than that I have a couple of buffs and debuffs, one or two damaging spells, and a couple of utility spells.” Rose stopped, fidgeting slightly. “So…what do you think?”

I think it all looks fantastic. Lia said approvingly. I’m glad you like it, and I’m glad that it all seems…well, strong. I’m super happy for you.

Rose blushed. “I…thank you. So…what now?”

Amelia sent me a letter and told me that this place does in fact have a rat farm, or at least the skeleton of one. She said it should be in the biology building, which is…probably a good next destination anyway. That’s where all of the information on monsters is going to be, and seeing as how we are monsters now, it can’t hurt to know more about ourselves.

Rose nodded. “Which building is the biology building? There seem to be quite a few buildings, just based on the glimpses I’ve caught of the area near the burrow.”

There’s a map on one of the pathways, I’ll show you if you want.

“That sounds good. I’d like to know as much about this place as possible.”

Lia hopped down from her perch and began walking out of the fort. Follow me, then.

“Would you like me to carry you?” Rose asked, closing the distance between them in just a few steps. “I believe my Dexterity is such that, even though yours is higher, my longer legs will make this go faster.”

Oh, yeah, good idea. Put me on your shoulder, please.

“Are you sure you want the shoulder and not…you know…” Rose asked, a blush rising to her face.

Lia gave a small smile. Are you sure you aren’t the one that wants that? She teased.

Rose let out a small eep of surprise and turned to the side. “U-um…you just enjoyed it and so I was thinking…well, you know…”

Because if you don’t want that then I’m perfectly content staying on your shoulder, that sort of thing can wait, and that’s twice now you’ve asked.

“I…I…” Rose stuttered. “I want it, yeah.” She squeaked, burying her face in her hands.

Then put me in. Lia said. If you want something like that, just say so next time and I’ll be more than happy to oblige.

Rose took her face out of her hands, revealing the bright red of her cheeks. “A-alright, I’ll…try. I’m not used to saying what I want, but I’ll try.” She knelt down and cupped her hands together, offering Lia a platform to stand on.

Lia stepped on and Rose lifted her up before gently depositing her on her chest. Lia took a second to get herself secure and comfortable then spoke up. You’re not? You were like…in charge of everything, right? All you had to do was ask.

Rose began to walk in the direction they had been headed before. “I…that feels right, but I didn’t. I…huh.” She stopped speaking for a moment, and Lia began to wish she could see her face better.

After a bit, she continued. “I don’t know, it feels like they couldn’t really help me with what I wanted. And that I would lose…something by speaking up. I don’t know what I would lose or what I wanted, though.”

Interesting. That…agrees with the stories, by all accounts you were very…cold and aloof. But…you certainly don’t seem that way to me. You seem…normal? Maybe a little shy even, and definitely not cold.

“That…makes me really happy, actually.” Rose said. “I…can’t tell you why, but that’s…exactly what I wanted to hear. I just feel…content with how things are now, you know? With you in particular I feel like I can let my guard down and just…be, you know?”

I was thinking something similar earlier. Lia said. It’s definitely not the same with Lily.

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Rose replied. She reached the edge of their fort, but instead of stopping and going to look for the gate, she kept walking. As she did, roses appeared beneath her feet, forming a staircase that led her up and over the wall and down onto the ground below.

Woah, that was cool. Lia said. Your magic?

“Yeah.” Rose confirmed. “One of those neat utility spells I mentioned. We’ll…have to fix our walls so flying monsters can’t get in, now that I’m thinking about it, but that’s not a huge deal right now. But, uh…where to now?”

See that path to our left? Get on there and keep going past the burrow until you reach a fork. Hang a right and there should be a map some distance down the trail.

“Got it.” Rose replied, then got onto the path and set off towards their destination.